At first glance, the ski industry in Northern California could use a lift.

The Sierra Nevada snow pack is roughly 50 percent of normal. Blizzards buried ski resorts in December, but the first three months of 2013 were among the driest ever recorded in the Lake Tahoe region.

Looking to the future doesn’t really offer much relief. A report released in December estimates that American ski resorts have already lost $1 billion from climate change over the past decade — with even more losses to come.

In this case, looks can be deceiving.

After investing millions in snowmaking equipment, adding summer operations, and building new retail space, winter resorts in the Lake Tahoe region are much better off than appearances would suggest. And even the weather hasn’t been all bad.

“Everybody in this business looks at the glass as half-full,” said Bob Roberts, a spokesperson for the California Ski Industry Association, a nonprofit trade group.

Making snow count

Most ski resorts don’t release their lift-ticket and visitation figures, but Roberts estimated that business is up significantly over last year.

Thanks to cold temperatures so far, resorts in the Lake Tahoe region didn’t lose much snow during the dry spell in early 2013. As of April 1, most of the major resorts including Kirkwood Mountain Resort (owned by Colorado’s Vail Resorts Inc.), Squaw Valley Ski Resort and Sugar Bowl Resort still had roughly 100 inches of base depth.

Snowfall was much worse during the 2011-2012 season. According to the Denver Post, it was one of the worst ski seasons in U.S. history. The Lake Tahoe area didn’t receive any snow in December 2011 and California resort visits dropped by 26 percent.

The Northern California ski industry has developed aggressive strategies to ride out tough seasons. According to a survey by researchers at San Francisco State, the Shasta and Tahoe regions have recently spent more than $32 million combined on capital improvements — about 80 percent of all investment made in California resorts.

Much of the money went into snowmaking. Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows Ski Resort, which completed a merger in 2011 and are now owned by equity firm KSL Capital Partners, spent $5 million last year on new equipment to produce man-made snow.

Andy Wirth, CEO and president of the newly merged megaresort, said those investments will help boost earnings this season and keep the mountains open through mid-May. The company increased spending on snowmaking part way through last year because of the woeful weather.

The additional investment paid off, helping the resort act quickly this year when rain destroyed part of the mountain’s snow in early December.

“Because of the investment in the snowmaking system, we were able to rebuild the lower part of the mountain,” Wirth said.

Other mountain operators tell the same story. Over the past few years, many Tahoe-area resorts have either added snowmaking capacity or purchased better machinery. Boreal replaced its snowmaking equipment five years ago, while Sugar Bowl invested in energy-efficient machines that produce more snow with less water.

“While we haven’t really expanded the footprint of snowmaking, we’ve gotten better at snowmaking where we do it,” said John Monson, director of marketing and sales at Sugar Bowl.

Investing for the future

Resort operators in the Tahoe region have increasingly diversified their operations, which also helps during down years.

Competition, not weather, is driving investment, said Wirth. Resorts in Lake Tahoe are competing with other ski areas from all over western North America for international customers, hoping to offer more than just a few hours of skiing.

“We’re not in the ski business,” he stated. “We’re in the mountain vacation business.”

According to researchers from San Francisco State, the Northern California ski industry accounts for $1.2 billion in economic activity. Resorts in the Shasta and Lake Tahoe regions together attracted more than 4 million skiers and snowboarders in 2010-2011, which was a record year for ski areas. That number counted for 53 percent of all visits to California resorts during that season.

Northern California resorts compare favorably to other ski areas in western North America. Utah and British Columbia each generate about $1 billion in annual ski revenues. Colorado’s snow industry still dominates the market by generating roughly $3 billion in revenues each year, according to Colorado Ski Country USA.

The Tahoe ski industry has been aggressive with expanding both hospitality and snow operations. Ironically, Colorado-based Vail Resorts, which also owns Kirkwood and Heavenly, recently sunk $30 million into expanding Northstar California Resort at Tahoe near Truckee. The company added restaurants, another high-speed chairlift, a new superpipe designed by X Games snowboarder Shaun White, and snow cat skiing to the backcountry.

Wirth said that Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows has invested $70 million over five years to expand the resort, adding new restaurants, bars, retail shopping, and non-ski activities like snow tubing and mini-snowmobile rides.

“These guys are in the hospitality business,” said Roberts. “They just see this as a different product.

Other ski areas have found creative ways to grab a larger piece of the industry’s market share. Boreal, a resort with 700 employees during peak winter months, expanded its operations last year by opening Woodward Tahoe, a youth sports facility offering cheerleading, skateboarding and other activities. The new complex will stay open all year and help boost Boreal’s bottom line while also drawing a new generation of resort visitors.

“It validates and solidifies our position in the market in that sense, too,” said Shaydar Edelmann, the resort’s mountain manager.

The industry was able to complete some of those resort upgrades after Congress passed a bill in 2011 allowing more summer operations on public lands, said Roberts.

“We now have opportunities for a much broader array of activities,” he stated.

Hedging against climate change

Even when it comes to climate change, Northern California resorts seem better positioned to cope with erratic weather — although the U.S. snow industry is a different story.

The nation’s $12.2 billion winter sports industry is already suffering from climate change, according to a joint report released in December by the Natural Resources Defense Council and a nonprofit advocacy group called Protect Our Winters. The report estimates that U.S. ski resorts lost a combined $1 billion and shed up to 27,000 jobs between 1999 and 2010 due to reduced snowfall and a shift in outdoor habits by Americans.

Last year, American ski resorts suffered one of the warmest winters since the 19th century. According to the NRDC report, half of the nation’s resorts opened late and 48 percent closed early.

But the report also pointed out that California resorts only suffered a 4.7 percent drop in visits during that period, compared to 20-30 percent declines at other winter recreation areas across the country. And several Lake Tahoe ski operators said they can’t worry too much about climate change without knowing how the Sierra Nevada will be affected.

“There’s no real major strategic discussion on making adjustments moving forward,” at Boreal, Edelmann said. “We’re farmers. We have to manage the weather as best we can with what we get.”

Climatologists have suggested a number of different theories for California’s future weather. Some models predict snow levels will start creeping up in the Sierra Nevada, while other projections show more snowfall as the warming atmosphere adds moisture.